"Frères et Enfants du même Père": The French Illusion of Empire West of the Great Lakes, 1731–1743

摘要: In the eighteenth-century, France’s metropolitan authorities and colonial officials tasked French western explorer Pierre de La Verendrye to integrate Indigenous peoples of Petit Nord – Cree, Assiniboine, Monsoni, Anishinaabeg, Dakota into network French-mediated alliances emanating from Great Lakes. The governor-general New France, known as Onontio by Natives, sought ensure symbolic subjugation all Lakes Nord. Unlike Lakes, devastated endemic warfare virulent diseases, social formations Northern Plains remained politically cohesive autonomous in eighteenth-century. Thus, Dakota, others, resisted creating a “middle ground” with other newcomers, they had little desire or need mediation their territories. Verendrye’s ambitions for peace, “Pax Gallica,” were thwarted overwhelmingly Native political space Plains.